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Boradism
Boradism - an ancient religion of the Zahrian people, focused around the premise that gods are playing a divine game, in which the board is the mortal world, the pawns are an allegory humans and the dice (dav. borada) is a symbol of fate. The religion became institutionalized shortly after the creation of the first Zahrian Empire. The religion, while boasting a myriad of various gods and goddesses, focuses on the original 6 "players": Enay the Thinker, Esthaya the Entertainer, Yash the Architect, Maruna the Lawgiver, Bharu the Loremaster and Mali the Plotter. These creators of the holy game are one of the unifying aspects of the various Boradist cults and branches. The Boradist religion spread with the conquests of Emperor Ishkandad V, eventually becoming the most dominant religion on the Eastern Thir subcontinent. Original Players * Enay - known as the Thinker or Game-Master, Enay is a patroness of mothers, hearthfire and families. As the divine Lady Mother Enay gave birth to the other 5 deities. * Esthaya - called the Entertainer, Esthaya is the goddess of love, sensuality and pleasure. Because of that, she is oftentimes presented as an opposite force to Yash, who is thought to value commitment to chores and duties, rather than pleasures. Known as a patroness of arts and culture, Esthaya proposed the very idea of playing a board game to Enay and other deities. * Yash - this god is named the Architect as he designed the board itself, having planned out all the waters and lands of the world. A patron of workers and craftsmen, Yash is a symbol of hard and precise work. * Maruna - as the Lawgiver Maruna laid out the rules of the game, setting in motion things such as laws of physics or general laws of nature. * Bharu - the imaginative Loremaster created the pawns, together with their countless cultures and histories. A guardian of scholars and knowledge-seekers, Bharu is patron to all curious people. * Mali - known as a mischevious plotter, Mali is despised by other gods and cherished by humanity as he was the one to partially free humans of the Borada's influence, managing to do so through trickery and deception. Core beliefs Borada The term "borada" is used in the Boradist holy book, Madhurva, to describe the literal dice that the gods use when playing their game. Boradist scholars and theologists also seek deeper meaning in the word, however; the dice is an obvious analogy to fate and as such, the "borada" is also used to describe that very concept. Mythology Creation Many versions of different myths have come up to explain how the world was created; the version officially sanctioned by the Boradist Church in the Madhurva states the following: The world began with Enay, a single entity, a sentient Chaos, a conscious Nothing. Bored out of it's mind in a world consisting only of her, Enay began to imagine other entities living beside her. And so Esthaya, Yash, Maruna, Bharu and Mali were created as figments of Enay's mind. Despite their mutual company, Enay and her Imaginations began to feel bored and, eventually, Esthaya proposed a Game.